Preliminary tax hike 4.7 pet.
The Prince George
Citizen
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 5, 1989
50 CENTS
Low tonight: -6 High Wednesday: 2
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Ann Landers
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1990 CITY BUDGET AT $44.2 MILLION
by BERNICE TRICK Citizen Staff Prince George city taxpayers can figure on a 4.7-per-cent tax hike in 1990, although it’s not yet etched in stone.
During the first 1990 provisional budget discussion Monday, city finance director Bill Kennedy estimated the city’s 1990 operational budget at $44,245,427 — a $2 million (almost five per cent) increase over the 1989 budget of $42.1 million.
A property owner of an average-sized home can expect taxes to increase about $32 over last year.
But there are still lots of angles to work out like the method of taxation to be used and other considerations.
The 1990 budget provides for no substantial increases in levels of municipal services, but rather accommodates the rate of inflation.
The budget will undergo a lot of changes during the next few months in areas where final information is still unknown such as the amount of the province’s unconditional revenue sharing grant, the 1990 Inland Natural Gas franchise fee and the exact amount of the 1990-1991 RCMP contract costs.
Generally, expenditures include general municipal government services at $5 million (up from $4.7 million), protective services like police and fire protection at $15.4 million (up from $14.7 million), transportation services like public works administration and public transit at $7.9 million (up from $7.5 million), garbage and waste collection at $1.3 million '(up from $1.2 million), planning and other development at about $473,000 (up from $430,000) cemetery at about $162,000 (reduced from about $163,000), recreation and cultural services at $5.6 million (up from $5.4 million) and fiscal services like debt charges, contingency, fire and mobile equipment at $8.2 million (up from $7.7 million).
All 1989 costs are estimates, pending final figures at fiscal year end March 31.
Revenues include property tax at $27.4 million, grants in lieu of taxes at $1.2 million, sales of service like garbage fees at $4.2 million, other revenue sources like business licenses and building permits at $5.1 million, government unconditional grants at $2.9 million, conditional grants at about $67,000, and revenue from such sources as trusts, debenture proceeds and surplus funds at about $3.0 million.
The budget is balanced, with costs and revenues each totalling $$44.2 million.
Council will continue to meet for budget discussions throughout December to make deletions and additions to the base budget presented Monday.
One of the greatest increases to the budget comes from the cost of police protection, which is estimated at $9.1 million in 1990 from $8.5 million in 1989 and $6.9 million in 1987.
To accommodate the increase, restraint is being used in other areas in order to keep property tax increases near the rate of inflation, Kennedy said.
He said the city needs to concentrate in the future on increasing non-tax sources of revenue such as fees for services or from governments.
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Unseasonably warm weather doesn’t bother these log- Highway. Land owner Ellen Bristow heeded the land
Four-legged 9ers- Jake (|eft) and Banner burst from the bush with a cleared to make way for a sewer line and felt the horses
loaaers log in tow as owner Don Porter runs behind with a firm would do less damage to her property than mechanized
hold on the reins. Porter and his team of Belgians were logging methods.
spotted recently clearing property on the old Giscome Citizen photo by Dive Milne
Pollution probe under way
by JULIAN BELTRAME Southam News
OTTAWA — Fisheries Minister Tom Siddon has launched an investigation into allegations contained in a leaked memo that his department is thwarting attempts to prosecute large polluters of fish habitat in British Columbia.
Siddon said Monday he asked his deputy minister to investigate after the NDP’s Jim Fulton said the minister should resign over the memo, which called the situation in the department “a near scandal.”
‘‘(These) are serious charges,” Siddon, who rejected calls for his resignation, told reporters outside the House.
‘‘If they are not substantiated in fact, then they are highly improper. If they are, I will consider them seriously and take appropriate action.”
The six-page memo from Otto Langer, head of habitat management in the Northern B.C. and Yukon division of the federal department, details several examples of ‘‘senior staff and those above” in the department thwarting prosecutions against large polluters.
In the Nov. 15 memo to his superior, Langer says the department vetoed a Justice Department recommendation to charge the B.C. Ministry of Forests for polluting the Swift River because laying a charge against the provincial government would be “political dynamite.”
Langer adds that Alcan Ltd. and its contractors “largely destroyed a salmon stream at Kemano " but
due to the department’s “special relationship (with Alcan). . .that violation will probably not be prosecuted.”
Langer, who lists other unprosecuted infractions, goes on to say that while the large polluters are given special permits from the B.C. government to carry on their illegal activities, small polluters are being harassed.
“Should the public discover how
De Jong
by MARK KENNEDY Ottawa Citizen
OTTAWA — Despite his later denials to the contrary, NDP leadership candidate Simon De Jong cut a deal with Dave Barrett at the party convention Saturday.
The behind-the-scenes story was told Monday night by the CBC-TV program, The Journal. The program showed De Jong, a Saskatchewan MP, promised to throw his support to Barrett on the condition Barrett allow him to be party whip.
CBC said the promotion to whip — who’s responsible for organizing MPs in the House of Commons — would have increased De Jong’s power within the party and handed him a $7,000 raise.
The deal was made in a room in the basement of the cavernous Winnipeg Convention Centre between the first and second ballots. The Journal had audio tape of the
we are determining who should or should not be charged would amount to a near scandal,” the memo states.
The memo warns that because of “interventions” by senior staff, “habitat enforcement has reached an all-time high in inconsistency and an all-time low in terms of the adverse precedents they are setting.”
Siddon told reporters he was sur-
full conversation.
Barrett, who was trying to head off a win by Yukon MP Audrey McLaughlin, promised De Jong an environmental post in the caucus’s shadow cabinet.
But De Jong interrupted him, insisting he wanted to be whip.
“Because that allows me to be there at the caucus and the executive meetings on a day-to-day basis," said De Jong.
Barrett immediately offered him the post.
"That’s a deal,” replied Barrett. “Look, for me that’s a joyous thing.”
The two shook hands and De Jong left the room to enter the hall. Barrett told his workers an alliance had been struck. He was stunned when, after the second ballot, De Jong declared his support for McLaughlin, who eventually won.
prised by the charges from what he initially called a “lower level official.”
The minister denied special treatment is being shown to large pulp mills and the B.C. government, saying that between 1986-88, the department laid 113 charges against polluters and obtained 47 convictions. He said large polluters had been prosecuted, but could not name any.
. De Jong later denied the rumor that he had cut a deal with Bar-: rett: “I can see how they (Barrett’s camp) could misunderstand because we shook hands,” he said. “They thought they had a deal but they didn’t.”
De Jong couldn’t be be reached for comment this morning. His campaign manager, Dickson Bailey, admitted in a telephone interview from Regina the televised episode might not have reflected well on his boss or the party.
He explained the De Jong camp had agreed with The Journal that the candidate would wear a microphone in the convention hall throughout Saturday afternoon.
He was wearing the small mike when he entered the private meeting with Barrett.
“We all just forgot it was on,” said Bailey. “The cameras weren’t there in the room and it just slipped our minds ”
nixed Barrett deal
Dollar hits
86 cents US; 9-year high
TORONTO (CP) - The Canadian dollar sailed past the 86-cent US mark today, setting a nine-year high.
Shortly after noon eastern time, the dollar had edged to 86.01 cents US, capping days of trading during which it flirted with — but did not quite reach — the 86-cent level.
Canada’s currency has been powered by a big premium in interest rates compared with those south of the border. Some short-term Canadian investments pay four percentage points or better than similar investments in the United States.
The widening difference is a direct result of the Bank of Canada’s bid to douse inflation by jacking up interest rates to cool the economy.